Shoutout to Regan at the Rouses in mid-city for explaining to me the difference between baby back ribs and spare ribs. Apparently spare ribs have an extra piece of meat attached to them, which Regan explained is one of the best parts of the pig. They also were on sale and were about half the price of the smaller ribs. I will warn ya’ll this is a time consuming one. I did a lot of research and comparison on different rib recipes and since this was my first time doing something like this from start to finish I decided I should go ahead and do the most from the start. I did a 36 hour brine on these ribs. Which sounds like a lot of work but really it just takes up a lot of space in your fridge. Then did a dry rub using Deb Perelmen’s rib rub. I roasted the ribs at 200F for 5 hours and then an additional hour at 300F. We then used my homemade barbecue sauce from my pulled pork recipe to glaze the ribs and broil them for about 10 minutes. We had to do this in batches, because 3 racks of ribs, so we put two sheet trays in the oven to keep the ribs warm while the others were broiling.
36 hour brine:
1 cup of salt
1 cup pineapple juice
1 red onion sliced
3 tablespoons black peppercorns
10 garlic cloves smashed
parsley sprigs
1 gallon water
Combine salt, water and pineapple juice in a large bowl. I found using warm water helped to dissolve the salt, add in all other ingredients. In two large hotel pans arrange your ribs. I cut each rack in half, and fit three halves in each hotel pan. Keep in mind three large racks of ribs fed close to 12 people. Scale recipe down accordingly. Pour your liquids over your ribs, I covered the pans with tin foil and stuck them in the fridge Sunday afternoon, and didn’t look at them again until Tuesday morning, when I drained the brine liquid and preheated the oven to 200F for roasting.
Rib Dry Rub (per 1 rack):
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons paprika
3 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon garlic powder (Deb Uses Onion but I didn’t have any)
1 tablespoon salt (Deb uses more salt, but keep in mind I brined my ribs so they already had a high salt content)
Cayenne to taste
1 tablespoon ground black pepper
Combine dry rub in a bowl. On whatever sheet tray you’ll be using to roast cut off a very large piece of tin foil (enough to contain the rack or half rack). Set the rib rack on the tin foil meaty side down, rub a light amount of the rub on this side of the ribs and flip so the meaty side is up. Use the remainder of the rib rub on the top of the ribs, and close them into the tin foil. Roast in the oven for about 5 hours at 200 and then increase heat to 300 for one hour. While this is happening you can make your barbecue sauce if you don’t just happen to have a jar of it sitting in the fridge from the last time you made pulled pork.
Kat’s Barbecue Sauce:
2 cups sofrito (recipe) or store bought
2 cups pineapple juice
1 cup stock
1 packet of Sazon
1 10oz can of chipotles in adobo
Add all ingredients to a large pot and bring to a light simmer until reduced. Once your ribs are finished roasting you can add the roasting liquid to this pot and reduce again. Puree the sauce in a blender until smooth, remembering to cover the lid of your blender with a towel so you don’t burn yourself on hot pork juice. Use this barbecue sauce to glaze the roasted ribs before broiling. You also could finish your ribs on the grill, I just don’t have a grill.
